Shortstop: Orlando Arcia aiming to carry strong finish at the plate to 2019

Shortstop Orlando Arcia gets ready to throw to first during infield drills on the first day of the Brewers' spring training workouts on Wednesday in Phoenix.(Photo: Roy Dabner, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

PHOENIX – Is it possible to carry momentum over from one season to the next?

Orlando Arcia certainly hopes so.

After struggling at the plate so badly he was demoted to the minor leagues not once but twice in 2018, the 24-year-old caught fire at just the right time for the Milwaukee Brewers.

Arcia batted .311 over his final 44 regular-season games and hit in each of his final 16 (including the playoffs), a performance that sent him into the winter on a positive note after enduring an otherwise dreadful campaign.

Now, he’ll look to continue that sort of production as he enters his third season as the team’s primary shortstop.

“He had a tough season, but it ended with him really playing some of his best baseball in the big leagues. Even though it was a short stretch, it was an incredibly important stretch. It changed his perspective on the season.

Arcia entered 2018 as one of the organization’s most highly regarded young players, a prodigy who was coming off a breakout 2017 – his first full season in the major leagues – that saw him hit .277 with 15 home runs and 53 runs batted in over 153 games while also defending at a high level.

He won three games with go-ahead RBI in the ninth inning or later in the first 12 days of the season – a 12th-inning single that beat the San Diego Padres on opening day, a ninth-inning single that beat the Chicago Cubs just over a week later and then drew a bases-loaded walk in the 10th inning to down the St. Louis Cardinals.

It was mostly tough sledding from there for Arcia, whose average was sitting at just .190 as the calendar flipped to May.

Already an aggressive hitter by nature, he began chasing pitches out of the strike zone even more frequently. Opposing pitchers were more than happy to oblige, and just over a month later, with his average sitting at .194, Arcia found himself optioned to Class AAA Colorado Springs.

The idea was to get him back into some good habits over the course of several weeks and then bring him back to the Brewers. But a sprained ankle suffered by his replacement, Tyler Saladino, scuttled those plans and Arcia found himself back in the majors a week later.

Predictably, things didn’t change for him at the plate. A month later Arcia was sent back to Colorado Springs, and in 22 games over that stint he hit .341 with two homers and eight RBI – a performance that earned him another promotion back to the Brewers.

The changes stuck from there and his .311 average and 13 RBI over his final 44 games helped solidify the bottom of what had become a tremendously potent lineup from top to bottom.

Arcia credited his teammates – specifically Christian Yelich, Ryan Braun and Jesús Aguilar – with giving him tips and helping keep his spirits up during his struggles.

And personally, Arcia learned a lot about himself when things were at their worst.

“It’s part of baseball,” he said through translator Carlos Brizuela when discussing his struggles. “You’re going to have your ups and downs every year, and you just have to be able to be strong mentally. If you’re not strong mentally you won’t be able to get out of that bad rut.

“Thankfully I was able to and I just kept my head up and stayed strong mentally.”

Arcia saved his best offensive performance for the biggest game of his career to that point – Game 163 at Wrigley Field on Oct. 1. With the Central Division title on the line, Arcia delivered his first four-hit game with four singles and scored two of the Brewers’ three runs in a 3-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs.

“It definitely meant a lot,” Arcia said. “You always go out there focused, but when you’re playing in that situation against the Cubs, your focus is a little extra.

“Fortunately, I was able to go out there and compete, and things went our way.”

The success didn’t stop there for Arcia. He went on to collect 11 hits (second on the team), score seven runs (tied for the team lead) and homer three times (most on the team) in 10 postseason games as Milwaukee fell one game short of making its second-ever World Series appearance.

“I’ve always enjoyed playing under pressure,” said Arcia, who finished the regular season with a .236 average, three homers and 30 RBI in 119 games. “I’ve been lucky to play a lot of playoff games in Venezuela and winter ball and that’s a totally different pressure out there. I enjoyed it, and I’m glad I was able to perform the way I did.”

Now, Arcia will look to springboard off his strong finish into the 2019 season. With the reported signing of Mike Moustakas, Arcia becomes the clear-cut No. 8 hitter in what will arguably be the deepest lineup in the NL.

Defensively, Arcia didn’t rate with the best as far as metrics go with four defensive runs saved in 852 1/3 innings in 2018), and his 15 errors led the team. But his range and strong throwing arm made him a tremendous weapon as a rover with the Brewers shifting 23 percent of the time, which was the most in the NL and eighth-most in the majors.

Prospect Mauricio Dubon might well have made his major-league debut last season as Arcia’s replacement had he not torn his ACL, and Dubon is back to full health and in camp this spring.

And while the shortstop job is still clearly Arcia’s – Dubon and second base prospect Keston Hiura have already been told they’ll begin 2019 in the minor leagues – he isn’t taking anything for granted.

“We have a lot of good players on this team,” he said. “Anyone can come in and take your job, so you never take it lightly. You always assume you’re fighting for a job no matter what. Last year’s strong finish definitely gave me a lot of confidence, but at the same time I’ve just got to keep working and keep showing that I can (play shortstop).

“We have a lot of guys behind me in the minor leagues that can come up and play the position well. So, I’ve got to keep working and keep performing.”

A mature response from a player who matured a great deal after enduring the biggest challenge of his baseball career.

“If you look back on it, there was a lot learned and there's going to be a lot taken from 2018 for Orlando Arcia,” said Counsell. “A lot of the lessons that a young player is going to learn, he went through all of them last year. It's on him now to kind of apply those lessons in the right way.

“He's gotten enough feedback from the major-league game with success and struggles to take the next step.”

By the numbers

.610 Combined OPS of Milwaukee shortstops in 2018, lowest in the major leagues.

.236 Combined batting average of Milwaukee shortstops in 2018, 26th in the majors.